American Workforce Development

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. ESTES of Kansas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address one of the important drivers of our economy: The way we develop the workforce of tomorrow.

Since the founding of our country, American workers have led the way in being the most productive and innovative in the world. However, technology and changing demands require that we identify new ways to maintain our competitive edge.

After nearly 10 years of stagnant growth, our economy is, once again, booming, thanks to cutting taxes and cutting regulations. Yet today, our economy faces a new challenge. At this moment, there are a record 6.6 million job openings in our country.

While we currently have the lowest unemployment rate in 18 years, there are still millions of Americans looking for a job. However, every day, I hear from employers throughout Kansas, and our country, about their difficulty filling open jobs because our workforce does not have all the skills it needs.

I believe this is because, for decades, politicians, educators, and even parents, have told students that the only way to succeed is to get a 4-year college degree. While a college degree is extremely important, some jobs are critical in requiring that. Today, we are seeing that many college students are graduating with crippling student loan debt and have trouble finding a job, while we have a shortage of skilled labor positions, such as welders, machinists, truck drivers, and people with other needed skills.

Because of this, I believe we have no choice but to change the way we are developing our workforce. We need to empower students to have more opportunities to prepare for the careers they want, whether through technical schools, community colleges, or universities.

Kansans have led the way with this by passing Kansas Senate bill S. 155, which allows high school students to graduate with either, or both, a technical or college-ready certificate. Through this effort, I believe Kansans can serve as a model for this country on how we train our workforce.

As a Member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, I have been proud to work on several ways to do this, including amending the Prosper Act, which will reform higher education and student aid, to allow students to complete work studies as apprentices in the fields that they are studying.

That amendment will help students to be more marketable once they finish their degrees, and builds on our need to support apprenticeship programs throughout the country. This also helps minimize outlandish student loan debt too many students and families are racking up.

In addition to working on the Prosper Act, I have also proposed the HOPE Act, which will allow TANF assistance dollars to go toward a successful workforce development program, one which is called Jobs for America's Graduates, or JAG.

Earlier this month, I met with some JAG students at Newton High School in Newton, Kansas, and heard about how the program has prepared them for their careers after high school. Allowing more TANF dollars to go toward this program can help many at-risk students and get more people off of assistance and on to successful lives.

These are part of our overall goal of making sure every American can get the skills they need to fulfill their potential.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairwoman Foxx and the Education and the Workforce Committee for their work towards this goal. Together, we can advance legislation which will maintain and grow America's leadership in our global economy.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. ESTES of Kansas. Mr. Speaker, that is right. We have an innovative aerostructure environment in Wichita. In fact, Wichita is known as the air capital of the world. We are always looking for skilled employees to fill those jobs, to help keep planes running, keep parts being produced through the process.

Our businesses have worked with community colleges and partnered with Wichita State University and are partnering with high schools to help make sure that the skills are available so those employers can have the employees that they need to help keep their operations running.

It has been a great transition we have made as we have gone through the baby boomers, who are now starting to retire and starting to leave the workforce. We need to make sure that we have enough skilled employees to replace them as they are retiring and make sure that we keep America's economy growing strong.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source